GAA pundit Joe Brolly has sparked a row saying it is “nobody else’s business” if Gaelic clubs are named after dead republican paramilitaries.

The RTE commentator he was “proud” that a hurling club in his home town Dungiven, Co Derry, was named after the INLA hunger striker Kevin Lynch, who was a club member.

He told the BBC: “It’s nobody else’s business - it’s as simple as that. People can either like it or lump it.

“That’s the way societies and communities work. Kevin played hurling for Dungiven and for Derry, and the hurling club was named for that reason. We’re very proud of him.”

The former Derry player was speaking after some unionists, including TUV leader Jim Allister, renewed criticism of the GAA in the wake of Peter Robinson heaping praise on the organisation for their cross community work at a Co-Operation Ireland dinner on Thursday night.

Mr Brolly said concern about GAA club names was “just a sideshow” and it was “important” that Mr Robinson had attended the event.

He added: “The GAA is working furiously at cross-community relations, as far as that’s possible. He’s gone as far as he can go - he had to say the stuff about not being particularly content about clubs like Kevin Lynch’s.”

At the dinner the First Minister said: “It is a testament to the progress that we have all made that tonight we can acknowledge the GAA’s role in peace-building by inviting a first minister from the unionist tradition to the lectern.

“Not so many years ago it would have been unimaginable that I would have been invited to speak at an event of this kind - or that I would have accepted.

“Thankfully the world has moved on. We are all on a journey. Although I think we each recognise that there is still some distance to travel.”

The comments drew a mixed response of support and condemnation on Twitter.

But in a statement TUV leader Jim Allister said Joe Brolly’s comments “underscore just how foolish Peter Robinson was in attending last night’s event and praising the GAA for supposedly reaching out across the divide”.

He added: “Kevin Lynch was a suicidal terrorist who was serving ten years in prison for stealing guns and taking part in punishment shootings.

“If Mr Brolly is 'proud' his local GAA club is named after such a character it is a revealing insight into the attitude of the GAA as an organisation.”